It is an honour to be invited to give the
first in what I'm told will be an indefinitely long annual
lecture series, the Chapman Lectures.

The series has been
named in honour of Bob Chapman, the founding Professor of
Political Studies at Auckland University.

In naming the
series the Chapman Lectures, the title can also encompass
the work of Noeline who over all those years assisted and
supported Bob in his work.

In an unpaid capacity, Noeline
clipped the newspapers and recorded the news and current
affairs day in, day out. That work formed the basis for the
Noeline Chapman archive in the Political Studies Department
– supplemented, of course, by the ceaseless flow of
parliamentary material from Jonathan Hunt for the last 34
years!

The series is designed to recognise Bob's
considerable academic achievements, especially in the study
of New Zealand politics and in bringing the results of his
academic study to the wider public.

My lecture, I was
told, could be on any subject within Bob's range of
interests, which could mean just about anything, as Bob's
interests have been so wide.

So, let me begin with some
comments on that wide range of interests, and how, applied
to the teaching and supervision of students, Bob's work, and
that of the Department he founded, came to influence several
generations of students. My hypothesis is that through
education in political studies, students, especially
graduate students, gained a thorough grounding in modern
history and political structures, systems, and ideas which
enabled us to understand and analyse the world around us and
adapt to the rapid change which has been a constant in our
lives ever since.

Bob's own academic background was in
history, in my view an important sister subject to the study
of politics.

The study of current political systems and
thought is not productive in a vacuum. To me, it is
important to know the background and the context of
contemporary political systems and events.

Bob's original
research was for his MA thesis on the subject of the 1928
General Election. His fascination then was with three
party politics. One can only imagine how much more
fascinated he is today with multi-party politics on a
grander scale under MMP.

That thesis directed him to what
I believe was always his first love in the study of
politics: psephology – the study of elections.

In the
pre-computer age Bob worked by hand and meticulously with
the electoral results analysed in micro detail on small
white cards.

He published on the 1960 General Election in
the company of Austin Mitchell and Keith Jackson.

Then as
the television age dawned in New Zealand, Bob took his
charts and knowledge onto the screen as an astute
commentator on voting trends.

He certainly instilled in me
a lifelong interest in polling booth results and in the
official publication, known as the E9, in which the results
for every booth in every electorate are faithfully recorded
for each election. Of course, MMP makes that more
interesting too as we examine the discrepancies between
votes for the party and votes for the party's
candidate.

Bob developed a profound knowledge of the
players in the New Zealand political system. He knew
particularly the Auckland members of Parliament of both main
parties – and he knew the key party activists. Indeed he
probably knew us better than we knew ourselves.

He was
always interested in the whole economic and social context
which formed the backdrop for the political contest. Indeed
his forte was his ability to see the big picture – as well
as his interest in dissecting its components in minute
detail.

His generation, my parents' generation, grew up
and reached maturity in what were both bleak and
inspirational years for New Zealand.

Their parents were
the World War One generation who, after its devastating
effects, faced first the depression of the early 1920s and
then the more catastrophic depression which followed Wall
Street's 1929 crash.

Labour was elected in 1935, and with
astute management and the help of an economic upswing
brought new hope to the country. But within four years New
Zealand was at war again with Germany and the next
generation was in khaki.

The war ended with the dawn of
the nuclear age, followed by the Korean War and four decades
of the Cold War. New Zealand prospered initially in the
1950s, but from the mid to late 1960s entered a downward
economic spiral which, with fits and starts, has continued
more or less to this day.

Against this background, it is
no wonder the study of New Zealand politics with Bob
acquired a certain fascination.

He himself had a deep
interest in, and abhorrence of, the development of nuclear
weaponry.

He also took a deep interest in Maori politics
and society, personally teaching a course on it and
maintaining a wide range of contacts in Maoridom.

The way
in which the teaching and study of politics developed at
Auckland University very much reflected Bob's wide interests
and his desire that we should see modern politics,
international affairs, and political ideas in their
context.

Those of us who went right through to Masters
level and beyond with him and the Department developed a
very wide general knowledge, something which has been a
great asset to me throughout my career. Fellow students
have made their mark in business, education, the law,
diplomacy, the civil service and community affairs – in all
of which a broad education is of enormous benefit.

For me,
our universities must always be a place where a broad
general education can be obtained and not just a narrow
vocational training school.

Yet the increasing costs of
university education in the 1990s did put pressure on
students to get a meal ticket and to veer away from study
for the sheer pleasure of knowing more about the world we
live in. One hopes this trend can be reversed before the
nation descends into a state of ignorance.

Sometimes there
are disturbing signs of how bad things have got. In a
survey conducted around the end of the millennium, New
Zealanders were asked to name the most tragic event of the
twentieth century. From memory, the death of Princess Diana
tied first equal with the Great War. Tragic as Diana's
death was, it cannot compare with the horror of World War
One or of the holocaust.

Findings like these convince me
that we need more of the broad general education Bob Chapman
stands for right through our school system as well as in our
tertiary institutions.

In the study of politics at
Auckland University, we learnt not only of our own society,
but also of the political systems, structures and values of
others.

My basic knowledge of the American constitution
and political structures comes from my first year course in
1968. America's structures have endured to this day, unlike
those of France and the Soviet Union which we also studied
that year. Indeed the Soviet Union is no more – and all the
text books have had to be rewritten. Few, if any, predicted
that in 1968.

In my time as a student, I also had the
opportunity to study China and Japan with Robert Taylor,
Eastern Europe with Barry Gustafson, and, with, Ruth
Butterworth, Britain, Africa and political communication.
Peter Aimer led us through political socialisation and the
inculcation of political values and beliefs; John Prince
through theories and methods, and Bob himself taught us
about the politics of Black America.

Apart from the
intrinsic interest of the subject matter, three things stand
out for me about my education in political studies in the
1960s and 1970s.

The first was the small group teaching
through the tutorial system. While year one and two
lectures were to large groups, every week we had the
privilege of broadly reviewing and discussing the lecture
material in small groups with a tutor. This required us to
be articulate and analytical, and to think for ourselves and
on our feet.

The same pattern followed through in the
smaller third year and MA courses.

No doubt the
economics of university education make it hard to provide
teaching in this depth these days. Yet that small group
work was the icing on the cake of our education.

The
second feature was the encouragement to us to read widely.
It was my first year at university which forced me to read
newspaper editorials, relatively few of which given the
rather conservative nature of our press I've ever agreed
with. But understanding and appreciating the reasons for
the points of view of others is also a useful skill to have
in politics – and indeed as a citizen in a
democracy.

Thirdly, we were encouraged to participate in
political debate and affairs in the widest sense. Some
became active in political parties, some in student affairs,
and some in political interest groups. A democratic
political system of course depends on people being prepared
to participate, and encouraging that was an important part
of our education. Some of us of course took that to greater
lengths than others!

The skills I gained, the knowledge I
acquired, and the networks I became part of during my time
studying politics at Auckland University have all had a
marked influence on my adult life and on my ability to
perform effectively in one of the country's more demanding
occupations.

One of Bob Chapman's key achievements, as
I've already noted, was to bring the results of academic
study to the wider public. He did that through his
television commentary, his radio broadcasting and his
occasional contributions to the print media.

Let me
then make some personal observations about current events in
my lifetime which have affected our country; observations
which are informed by informed by my academic education in
political studies and the insights it gave me into the New
Zealand political culture and society and our place in the
world. My fascination is with how much New Zealand has
changed in fifty years in its economy, society, and
international orientation. It is not surprising that that
change ahs had a marked effect on the shape and form, of the
political system.

I was born in and grew up in a country
which had full employment. A good deal of that employment
was to be found in a large state sector and in secondary
industry which grew with the assistance of tariffs and
import controls. The primary sector which earned most of
the export revenue employed relatively few people and little
of its export product was elaborately transformed by
processing.

Our exchange rate was fixed at a rate rather
higher than the $US dollar, but foreign currency itself was
rather hard to come by with access to it controlled by
application to the Reserve Bank.

In this 1950s and 1960s
New Zealand, Maori had a low profile and issues concerning
Maori were seldom debated. For years New Zealand put up
with excluding Maori from All Black tours to South Africa
because the apartheid system would not accept them. The "No
Maori, No Tour" movement eventually achieved the dubious
victory of having Maori tour as honorary whites. Only in
the 1970s and 1980s did this become a major issue.

New
Zealand was a loyal United States ally. The "where Britain
goes, we go" approach from the Boer War to World Wars One
and Two was applied to the United States relationship after
1945. We sent troops to Korea, Malaya, and Vietnam, all in
the Cold War context of combatting the spread of communism.
By and large the public accepted the first two commitments
with equanimity, but our involvement in Vietnam over time
caused deep division and debate. That was a formative
experience for many in my generation.

The 1960s began to
shake that cosy post-war New Zealand. The crash in wool
prices in 1967 rocked the economy. The 1970s brought more
dramatic change. Britain entered the EEC, changing our
export market for ever. The oil crisis in 1974 started New
Zealand's long decline into significant unemployment. The
deregulation brought by Rogernomics produced a contemporary
South Seas bubble, but that gave way with the 1987 Wall
Street crash to a long period of economic uncertainty which
still has its challenges today.

Dramatic events also
affected our foreign policy. The French brought their
nuclear testing to the South Pacific in the mid 1960s,
provoking hostility to nuclear weaponry which almost two
decades later saw New Zealand declare itself a nuclear-free
zone, and, as a result, saw the United States declare this
loyal ally a mere friend. The Vietnam War had also taken
its toll on that relationship. Norman Kirk's government
brought the New Zealand troops home from Vietnam. That
government also recognised the reality of modern China,
giving diplomatic representation to the People's Republic
and exchanging ambassadors with it.

By the mid 1980s New
Zealand was finding its own way in the world – nuclear free,
semi-aligned, and in the mainstream at last of international
opinion on the evils of apartheid South Africa. From that
time hence, we've played a significant role at the United
Nations on disarmament issues, and in United Nations
peacekeeping operations. Our relative independence makes us
a friend to many and a foe to few, outside the small clubs
of coupsters in countries like Fiji.

The post World War
Two era saw New Zealand engage for better or worse in many
ways with the nations of Asia. I've already mentioned the
commitment of troops to Korea, Malaya and Vietnam, following
the substantial commitment against Japan in World War Two
itself.

For decades we maintained forward defence in
Asia with troops permanently stationed in Singapore.
Through the Colombo Plan we educated a good number of Asian
students who went on to be leaders in the public and private
sectors of their countries. We built strong relations with
the nations of ASEAN and North Asia.

The 1990s saw a major
push for even closer relations with Asia, based on their
economic potential. The new organisation of APEC was joined
with enthusiasm, Asia 2000 was formed with government
funding and encouragement, and more active involvement in
the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region was sought.

At home
the far reaching changes in the economy in 1980s and 1990s
and in social policy in the 1990s took their toll in many
ways. Unemployment rose significantly from 1987/88 through
to 1991/92 and only in very recent figures has gone below
the six per cent mark for the first time in thirteen years.
The rapid removal of tariffs saw the rapid decline of the
manufacturing we had. The state sector shrank to become a
shadow of its former self. Widespread unemployment and
cuts in the social safety net produced deep cracks and
poverty in the society. The impact was felt most by the
Maori and Pacific peoples' populations, but not
exclusively.

Maori meantime had undergone a renaissance
from the 1970s. The establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal
in the early 1970s, the land march in 1975, the dramatic
events at Bastion Point, and the ability to take Treaty
claims back to 1840 were all steps along the way. New
Zealanders under forty scarcely remember a time when Maori
and Treaty issues were not in the news. Adjusting to the
more assertive Maori presence hasn't been an easy process
for many New Zealanders.

It's not surprising that these
last two to three decades of turbulent economic and social
change have had a big impact on our political
system.

Initially they produced big swings in the two
party system with the landslide victories of 1972 and 1975,
and in 1984 and 1990. But over time concern about the
political system grew along with concern about the country's
the poor economic circumstances. The late 1980s saw growing
disillusionment with the first-past-the-post system and its
winner-take-all governments. That disillusionment surged
again in the early 1990s, leading to a massive vote for
change to the electoral system in the 1992 indicative
referendum, and then a narrow, but nonetheless absolute vote
for MMP in the 1993 binding referendum.

Our politics then
went through a rollercoaster ride as parties and politicians
repositioned themselves for the new system.

As the leader
of one of the two main parties fighting to retain major
party status in a more complicated political environment, I
had first hand experience of that.

What MMP did was expose
divisions which had always been present in the body politic,
but had been constrained by the two party system. MMP
produced a party system more akin to that of continental
Europe with Greens, a party to the left of Labour and a
party to the right of National, and parties vying for the
centre ground, but without much room to stand on given that
it has been the traditional battleground for National and
Labour. Attempts to found Christian parties and ethnically
based parties, including Maori parties, have not brought
electoral success to date.

The first term experience of
MMP was ghastly in anybody's books. This second term is so
far much more promising. Indeed the survival of the system
probably depends on it being so.

Meantime, New Zealand
faces other challenges in the wider world.

Around that
world, people are debating globalisation and its
impact.

It was the theme of the Progressive Governance
Leaders' meeting I attended in June with Bill Clinton, Tony
Blair, and other centre left leaders.

It was the theme of
the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in New York,
attended by most of the world’s presidents and prime
ministers.

It was the theme of the APEC Leaders’ Summit in
Brunei from which I have just returned.

My views on
globalisation are straightforward: love it or hate it, you
can’t stop it. It is an inexorable process and it is not a
new one.

What makes globalisation different in this
century is the pace of change driven by technology and new
discoveries. The new poor are those who lack access to
knowledge and the new technologies. But, if we are smart,
the digital divide can also be a digital opportunity – in
our own country and internationally.

Globalisation is
rendering borders irrelevant. We compete in one big market
for skills and investment. Our challenge is to establish a
firm niche in that market, to equip our citizens with the
education and skills to secure that niche, and constantly to
advance it through innovation. Standing still is not an
option. New Zealand has done that for too long and seen its
living standards slide from near the top of the OECD ladder
to near the bottom. That’s sapped our confidence in
ourselves.

Our future prosperity depends on us being wired
up, innovative, and accepting no limits on our potential.
It is not a case of failure to adapt meaning failure to
thrive. Failure to adapt may mean failure to survive for
business, and failure to survive as a first world nation for
the country as a whole. We can't even contemplate failure -
but what form might our success take?

In ten years I would
hope to see New Zealand increasingly interconnected with the
wider world, and right up to date with the latest
technologies. New Zealanders would be not only adapting and
adopting other people’s ideas and technologies, but we would
also be greater innovators ourselves. That will be the
difference between first world and second world status for
us.

New Zealand would be made up of a series of global
villages attracting and nurturing talent. More than a
decade ago Michael Porter wrote of the potential for
clusters in the New Zealand economy. Those clusters would
see us drawing together our public sector investments in
education, research and infrastructure with private sector
investments in new product development, financing,
production, and marketing.

We could be confident about
the quality of life in our global villages. We do have
cosmopolitan lifestyles for those who enjoy them, we have a
wonderful natural environment, - and we are a safe haven in
an often troubled world. That means a lot to skilled
migrants looking for a secure place for them and their
families to live in.

The seed bed of our economy would be
a dynamic small business sector which is enterprising and
generating new ideas for new products.

Ours would be a
dynamic trading nation with world leading products in our
areas of specialisation.

Trade opens up far greater
opportunities than our small domestic market can ever offer.
It enables our companies, like our Dairy Board, to be global
traders. My aspiration is to see our global traders want to
keep New Zealand as their base because New Zealand is their
source of innovation and their inspiration. Their being
here, their confidence in New Zealand, should attract others
to come and bring opportunity for our people with
them.

What’s needed to drive this new New Zealand? As the
Maori proverb says: He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. It
is people, it is people, it is people. It is educated,
skilled, creative and enterprising people who are going to
drive New Zealand's future as a nation. Our universities
have a huge role to play in this future.

In this future I
see a special role, not only for science, research and
technology, but also for arts and culture as a seed bed for
the creativity and lateral thinking which drives new
ideas.

In the 21st century, people who can think, analyse,
design, dream, and express themselves creatively will find
enormous opportunities open to them in the world of work and
business.

The extra funding this year for arts and culture
were designed to stimulate New Zealand's development as a
unique and creative nation, not only for the intrinsic
benefits which flow from that, but, also because of the very
real economic benefits as well. The flourishing film
industry, the emerging successful new media, design, fashion
and software industries, and the potential of the
contemporary music industry are all proof of the economic
potential New Zealand has as a creative nation.

An
innovative and creative New Zealand should see its people
earning substantially higher incomes, and driving
unemployment lower.

In turn that means having the capacity
to finance good public and social services and
infrastructure, conserve our natural and historic heritage,
create vibrant urban and rural communities, and further
boost the arts and cultural sides of our lives.

How to
adapt to globalisation and the new technologies are issues
pre-occupying all nations. Most appreciate the potential
of dynamic markets to create wealth, but it's also apparent
that they do not create equality of opportunity and access
to a good life. That can only be done by social
investment.

I have just returned from the APEC Leaders’
Summit where the need to balance free markets and free trade
with programmes for economic, technological, and social
development is now widely accepted. New Zealand can not
only be part of, but can also help lead that new consensus.
Indeed ours can be a unique contribution as we provide a
bridge between our own aspirations to retain first world
living standards and our common interest with developing
countries in gaining access for primary produce.

We are
indeed living in a new world – and one I could not have
imagined as I began my university studies in 1968. What was
a small, relatively closed economy and society, a sleepy
hollow, has become a much more open society and polity and
an economy exposed to global forces.

The knowledge I
acquired and the analytical skills I was taught in the 1960s
and 1970s have helped me to see a path for New Zealand
through the shoals created by changing times. Change is a
constant. All that is new is its increased pace.

What I
ask of university education is that it does for today's
students what it did for me: to produce inquiring minds,
provide the foundation of knowledge, the skills to analyse
it, and an interest in life long learning and application of
knowledge. Bob Chapman's outstanding contribution to
political studies in this university was to make all that
possible for generations of
students.

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